Problems with Undergeared.

Gevlon posted today what we in the Undergeared project have known for a few days, that the project is in danger of being would up. Some commenters on his blog are starting to say, I told you so etc, which is to be expected. I myself have barely played my mage for the last two weeks, primarally because I have had a very close friend come and visit me from Australia, and while we have played around in WoW during his time, it was with new toons so that we could hang out together. So real life intruded on my undergeared dedication. The other factor contributing towards my non presence has been due to the fact that the date of my bar re-opening has been steadilly approaching, (which will be sometime in mid-April), and the raiding evening of Saturday, while I had hoped to be able to be able to work my presence at the bar around it, it does not look feasible at this point in time.

So these are my own issues with regards to why I am having problems being online. But I wanted to comment in a general way about the guild and how Gevlon has gone about it as someone who has been there since the beginning. Certain comments have been made on his post today regarding there not being enough planning for the raid evenings. To be honest, I don’t know what they’re talking about. Gevlon said that the raid was to be on Saturday night from 7-10pm. How much clearer does it need to be? Part of the point of his project was to not hand hold everyone, and I think that this was quite right. If you begin hand holding, where would you stop? It was also an effective way of sorting out good players from mediocre ones. Gevlon in-guild was never a problem to deal with. if anything he was quite pleasant and there were a few guild chat conversations that I was involved in where a fair mount of joking around was to be had, with Gevlon included. Don’t get me wrong; if you said something really stupid then you would be called on it. But for me the guild was always a pleasant place to be, and with the high degree of talent present, you could always find an answer to any issue you were having with the toon that you were levelling.

I discovered one thing during this project – I am not a fast leveller. Having to reroll on a new server meant no access to heirloom items and, while some guildies levelled like a rocket, a good percentage of us took a lot longer to progress. Added to the fact that a part of the project rules was that you could not play a class that you already raided with, and it took a while to get up there. I rolled a mage due to Gevlon posting on his blog that he needed them. Maybe I should have rolled a healer or a tank but I have never played one of those at end game level and I just would not be comfortable being in a raid situation under a good amount of pressure and with my bad results potentially displayed for the blogging world to see. So I stuck with DPS. To be honest, I did not and still do not understand why Gevlon insisted on us not playing a familiar class. The project aim is to clear raid content in blues. Why give everyone the additional handicap of not being able to play classes with which they are very familiar? I would have been very happy playing a rogue, but due to the rules I was not allowed. I would have also immediately paid for a transfer and a faction change if I could have used my main so as to not waste time levelling. But levelling we had to do, and levelling takes time. (Gevlon is also insiting on new toons for his Inglorious Gankers project, which I also do not understand. I have transferred my rogue to that realm and am waiting for the time when level 80 toons can come in. Until then I am useless to the project).

I also think that this post by Gevlon didn’t help things. In it he gives a little bit of grief to a guild hunter about his DPS on a run. The hunter responded to the post three times explaining why he had problems. Gevlon didn’t respond to him on the post. Perhaps he responded in private, but that would not give any of the other guildies peace of mind. Perhaps people were thinking, I could be the next one to inadvertandly do badly and be written about a few days later. It is not an inducement to show up for a raid run. If a leader humiliates a team member in public then there is a very good chance that he will do it to others. This erodes team loyalty and a willingness to give your best.

I like and admire Gevlons projects. He comes up with very good ideas that nobody else has thought of or has the balls to attempt. He risks public failure in doing these, and while that may not effect a goblin like him personally, it may effect his blog. But he is willing to take those risks and for that I admire him. Yet I think that his projects could be planned better. It is already a challenge to clear end game content in blues or make hordies lives impossible on a clear Horde server – why put obstacles in your path that would make it more difficult for you, such as insisting on everyone starting new and unfamiliar toons? And I think that Gevlon has to learn that a big part of good leadership is about lifting people up not putting them down.

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6 Responses to “Problems with Undergeared.”

I have to agree with what you pointed out, He was harsh against the hunter and portrayed him a little bit as one of his moron of the week apes. Where Arcane or Frost magi can pull near 5k dps in simple ilevel 200-213, a hunter simply can not because they are very gear dependant. And as a raidleader Gevlon should have known that in that particular gearbracket and in Ulduar SV is the spec to go for because of the movement heavy fights + it provides replenishment.

I think one of the objectives of the ganking projects is to prove you can level and make fanboy lives miserable on a server with one of the worst alliance:horde ratio’s in Europe. It just wouldn’t be the same without the requirement to level the char on that server. Any person or blogger with a large readerbase could have done this project then.

I sometimes roll a new chars on new servers to play the Auction House. About half a year ago I rolled a level 1 on the alliance side of Magtheridon and by the time I reached the Exodar I got ganked and /spit on well over 3 times -and that’s just a 10 minute run tops.

The M&S belief is “no life” is required for success and they simply play less, that’s why they do 800 DPS.

Gear is merely a signal in this issue: “he has good gear because he farms 24/7”, the reason is the “no life”.

The point is that one with very casual playstyle can win in both PvE and PvP. Allowing transfers and well-known classes would not prove much, just check the comments of the original blue Ulduar run. They were something like “a no-life HC raider team can clear the content, even in blues”.

I don’t see how the hunter was humiliated. His name is not linked to his real name, nor to his main character. No one in his social circles knows that he is that guy.

@Oxymustard: when online, Kujoh, the BM hunter has rent place as #1 as DPS. Usually doing 2x more than the hunter in the example did. I can outdo him only on short fights with all CDs

People associate with their toons – if they see their name up on a blog it is them as far as they are concerned. Think of it this way – if you write a post saying that HunterX is fantastic, the person who plays HunterX will feel very good indeed. As such the opposite is also true.